Stick Together When Stuck Together!
by BlueIsTheColourOfOurPlanet
Summary: "This", said Roy Mustang, "Is the most unbelievable, most stupid thing to ever happen to me." "And it's your fault!", hissed Edeline Elric. "My fault? Who tried to put glue on my chair to get me stuck there and got it all over their hands in the progress! That was you, Fullmetal!" Giftfic for No.1DigiBakuFan, fem!EdxRoy, Bonding stuff and getting to know each other
1. Chapter 1 Glue

**Well, look who's crawling out of their writing fortress to deliver a story!**

 **While stuck on all my other new stories I managed to finish this prompt from the lovely No.1DigiBakuFan. Shoutout to her!  
**

 **Stick Together When Stuck Together!**

 **Chapter 1 Glue**

"This", said Roy Mustang, "Is the most unbelievable, most _stupid_ thing to ever happen to me."

"And it's your fault!" hissed Edeline Elric.

"My fault!? Who tried to put glue on my chair to get me stuck there and got it all over their hands in the progress?! That was you, Fullmetal!" An accusing finger was pointed at her.

"And who just had to take my hand?!" Ed slapped the finger away to point hers at Mustang, the digit was shaking in anger.

"I didn't take your hand, I was trying to stop you from getting glue all over my chair!" This time the finger was pointed at said piece of furniture.

"Just what is going on here?!"

They both flinched and turned towards one severe looking Riza Hawkeye who stood in the doorway to Mustang's private office, hand on the pistol at her hip and sharp eyes inquiring the reason why Mustang was not behind his desk, doing paperwork.

"Fullmetal tried to prank me and now I'm stuck to her!" The colonel growled, holding up his left hand in explanation. It was glued to Ed's right hand.

"Stuck?" Hawkeye raised her eyebrows.

"Look at the chair! She put glue all over it in hopes of getting me stuck there and when I tried to get the glue bottle away from her she dropped it but made to snatch it again and I grabbed her hand to keep her from doing so. And now I'm stuck to her because she had the damn stuff all over her hand! Even a toddler can handle glue bet-"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL SHE SHOULDN'T USE THINGS FOR KIDS OLDER THAN FIVE MONTHS?!" Ed was flailing, Mustang was grabbing her arm so she wouldn't pull at the glued together skin.

"Well you should stay away from glue, that's for sure!" he snapped.

"Sirs, please be quiet. I'm sure we can find a solution." His lieutenant tried to do the possibly impossible and calm them down. "Maybe visit the paediatrician? I think they might have experience with glue incidents and can get it off your skin."

"We.", said Ed

"Are NOT.", continued Mustang

"Going to a damn PAEDIATRICIAN!" Ed ended the sentence.

"It's nice to see you can agree on things every once in a while." Hawkeye looked as amused as she ever got. "Maybe the infirmary?"

"I won't walk around while holding hands with _him_!" Ed yelled, shortly before flailing around again to underline her unwillingness with elaborate hand gestures.

"Really? A lot of women would consider that an honour, Fulmetal." Mustang grinned smugly.

"Well that's because they don't yet know how much of a bastard inhabits that good looking shell!"

Mustang's grin broadened and Ed groaned, mentally hitting herself. The colonel opened his mouth and she lifted a menacing finger. "Don't. Say. A. Word. Don't say a single word, _Colonel_ , or you'll be done for!"

"Why so harsh when I just wanted to thank you for the compliment?" His smirk said he had planned on other words.

"GRAHHH that wasn't a compliment! Just a scientific observation!" The accusing finger came up again, this time in a warning function.

"Scientific observation, huh? Still a compliment to me."

"That's it, you damn smug-!"

Hawkeye fired a bullet to the ceiling and while Flame and Fullmetal liked to argue, in that moment they decided to agree on one action: Shut up and duck.

"Now. If you don't want to leave the room until the halls are empty and no one will see you, I suggest you kill the waiting time by doing your paperwork. Edeline, I'm sure we can find a book for you to read while the Colonel tends to his work."

"Yes, ma'am," the both of them answered, defeated.

Hawkeye left the room and Mustang started to move towards his desk. "Come on", he said through clenched teeth as he pulled at her hand. He looked like he was a hair's breadth away from incinerating something and only his unwillingness to throw even more of a childish tantrum at work and in front of Ed kept him from doing so. Grumbling, Ed followed his movement. She wanted to complain about him dragging her around, but while she still succumbed to childish streaks every once in a while, at nineteen she had matured enough to know that Mustang's anger and the resulting unfriendly treatment of hers was somewhat justified. She wouldn't admit it out loud but this predicament _was_ her fault.

"Help me pick this up," the grumpy colonel ordered.

It took a while until they managed to pick up all the documents and stuff from the desk, neither one really willing to let the other take control of the hand glued to them. But after a little tugging war and angry glances they managed. Stiffly walking over to the couch, elbow touching elbow, they somehow managed to sit down and depose the materials on the coffee table.

Mumbling an irritated "Should have reached out with the right hand, at least that would've spared me this, a pity you were closer to the left...," Mustang grabbed his pen with said dominant right hand and sat about ignoring Ed and doing his paperwork.

Edeline shifted uncomfortably, resisting the urge to pull her hand towards her. She wasn't used to the colonel ignoring her. Usually she had his full attention, either because he was mocking her or because he was lecturing her. Hell even when he had pretended to ignore her before she had his attention, sharp ears picking up the sound of her aggravated pacing as he sat there, appearing calm to the world when she knew he was trying his hardest not to laugh. But now he was really ignoring her, working on hated paperwork.

"Um, Mustang..."

"Fullmetal, I am currently trying to not kill you, so: Stay. Quiet."

"I was just going to suggest if maybe we can transmute this shit off!" Actually she hadn't known what she was going to say, she had just wanted to break the damn silence.

Mustang glared at her. "You can't do alchemy anymore and I can't clap like this. And a circle needs to touch the stuff it's supposed to transmute, so how do you plan on drawing a circle on glue stuck _between our hands?_ You have a better chance transmuting the skin off and while I'd love to have my hand free again I'm not _that_ desperate." It was delivered in a tone that told her to either think before talking or to keep her mouth shut. Mustang then went back to doing paperwork while Ed fumed.

Before she could say something though Hawkeye re-entered the room, carrying a few books.

"You really should stop putting your key underneath the doormat," she said when placing the books she had gotten from Ed's small apartment in front of her on the table.

"Well, you try keeping it in your pocket without loosing it when every damn criminal out there seems to think he needs to rip your clothes apart while fighting," Ed grumbled, not quite daring to snap at the blonde lieutenant.

Hawkeye raised an eyebrow. "Very well." She looked at the colonel who still seemed to be pouring over his files with appreciation, then turned to leave again. "I'll come back to collect you when the hallways seem mostly empty."

"Okay," said Ed while Mustang just hummed a confirmation.

It was easier to ignore the colonel ignoring her once she started reading and when Hawkeye finally came back her butt had gone numb from sitting for so long, without her even realising. She stood and made to stretch, only remembering she was glued to Mustang when her hand met resistance upon trying to lift it over her head. So without stretching and while scowling Ed followed Hawkeye on the way to HQ's infirmary, Mustang walking beside her, just as irritable.

The medic didn't dare to laugh at their predicament when faced with the glare of what he knew were two very deadly people. He looked over their hands and read the description on the glue bottle.

"This is, like, the strongest glue out there, the chemicals to remove it would probably do more harm to the skin than the glue itself. I think it will be safest to wait until the glue comes off by itself. Seeing as your skin will slowly regenerate itself and as hands sweat every once in a while it shouldn't take too long. But I'm not an expert for stuff like this." The medic looked like he had an revelation. "Maybe see a paediatrician, I'm sure they have more experience with cases like this seeing as kids..." he tailed off, rapidly turning pale while Ed became quite red in the face and Mustang glared. "A-Anyway, you should be fine as long as you don't tear at it with force. That won't make it go away faster, unless you rip off all the skin at once, which I wouldn't recommend doing," the man finally stuttered out.

"That can't be true!" Ed howled while Mustang sighed in defeat before glaring at her. "We have to wait until it gets off by itself?!"

"You just had to take the strongest glue there was, hadn't you? Now stop complaining, the only one here en-righted to complaining is _me_." He stood before Ed could even think of a comeback. "Lieutenant, please get the car. We'll collect some sleep wear for Fullmetal, then go to my place."

"What? Why your house?!" Ed did not like the thought.

The colonel rolled his dark eyes. "Because it seems like we'll stay like this over night and I'm pretty sure you have a bed build for one person, while I have a bed made for two people. That and I have things to do which I'm not going to put on hold just because you want to sleep at home with your security blanket and your teddy bear."

Ed jumped to her feet. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL SHE HAS A ROOM LIKE A TODDLER WITH STUFFED TOYS EVERYWHERE?!"

"Fullmetal stop the flailing!"

But Ed had already stopped, the feeling of her skin stretching before Mustang's arm followed her angry moving not pleasant at all. She really didn't want to rip her skin off. At last she grouched a "Fine, we'll go to your stupid place!" before slumping back into her chair.

And so they trotted towards the carpool where Hawkeye was waiting with an idling vehicle. And while slowly scooting over on the back seat of the car so Mustang could get in after her, Ed thought that this was going to be one horrible, crazy and nerve wrecking night.


	2. Chapter 2 Forced Sleepover

**Obviously life did get in my way... I am sorry for the long wait and won't bother you with the details of all that kept me from posting. Let's just say the main problem consisted of a broken laptop and lots of lost data, which results in me having to rewrite this whole story. The update schedule must, sadly, be cancelled.**

 **At least this story has found itself a beta while you had to wait. A big "Thank you!" and shout out to the awesome The-Missing-Paige.**

 **Chapter 2**

 **Forced Sleepover**

Since Edeline was used to living out of a suitcase she never bothered using the closet in her flat much. When knowing she would be sent away on a mission again soon, she would just put her clothes back into the suitcase after washing. So now all she had to do was grab the suitcase and get back into the car. All with a grumpy Mustang in tow, of course.

The both of them had made sure that no one saw them entering Ed's apartment while "holding hands" and they did the same when entering Mustang's small house. Hawkeye had wished them a good night and threatened to kill them should they fight too much. Neither of the two had dared to point out that she wouldn't know how much they fought when she wasn't even around.

"So what now?" Ed asked as they both stood in the living room.

"Now I'll cancel my plans for the evening," Mustang said with a sigh.

Ed wished she could cross her arms before her chest as she listened to Mustang's phone conversation with a woman she didn't know. Even more than that she wished she could strangle him, but with only one hand at her full disposal for the moment that wasn't possible. So she listened to his fluid half lie about why he couldn't show up for the date, (something about having to take care of a matter with a troublesome subordinate) and wanted to gag at all the smooth, flattering words he could spout without effort. In the end Mustang and the woman agreed they would reschedule the date and Mustang would call as soon as said matter with his subordinate was taken care of, before the Colonel finally hung up.

And once again they were standing in his living room, in uncomfortable silence and not knowing what to do now.

"I need a drink," Mustang then decided and unceremoniously dragged Ed over to his liquor cabinet.

She scowled and pulled back. "You are not getting wasted while I'm attached to you!"

"Who said anything about getting wasted, I just want _one_ drink!" he answered as he pulled a bottle out and made his way over to the kitchen. Or at least he tried to. "Oh come on, Fullmetal!"

She dug her heel into the floor as she contemplated. Alcohol was never a solution but this was going to be a rather uncomfortable night and maybe letting Mustang have his damn drink would take the edge of it. And maybe she should calm down, too. "Okay, but only if I get one, too!"

The Colonel actually rolled his eyes before making to continue his way into the kitchen. "Fine."

Ed followed and watched him pour the golden liquid into tumblers. She didn't drink often and was wondering if maybe she shouldn't try to drink that stuff after all. But Mustang already pushed a glass towards her before raising his own in a mock toast. "To a wonderful evening!" he said with a good portion of sarcasm before drinking.

Ed huffed as she answered with a just as mocking raise of her glass and didn't say anything before drinking the contents in one go. And she was happy she had done so because she was sure she wouldn't have been able to bare having to swallow this stuff again. Trying not to cough and squeezing her eyes shut, she pulled a face. "Ugh, no wonder you're such a bitter bastard, you have to be to drink that stuff and like it!" she croaked.

Mustang just raised an eyebrow. "It's an acquired taste, Fullmetal, like coffee. You're probably just still too small to like it."

"WHO ARE YOU CLLING SO SMALL SHE COULD USE A COFFEE CUP AS A BATH TUB?!" At least she remembered not to wave her arms around.

"I didn't say that." He put the tumblers in the sink while Ed calmed down. "So, what will we do now?" Ed's stomach chose to answer that question for her. "I guess we will have dinner then," Mustang said and raised both his eyebrows at her growling tummy before looking through the cabinets.

Ed felt a slight blush on her face and inwardly tried to make her stomach shut up. "I'll have you know that I don't count charcoal as edible food."

"Good thing I'm a fairly decent cook then," was the unimpressed answer.

And to her surprise Mustang really seemed to know what he was doing. Sure, he didn't cook a five star meal, but a rather nice looking dish consisting of mashed potatoes, vegetables and some fried chicken. She was stunned enough by his self assured moves to actually let her hand and arm go limp so he could use his arm and hand freely. Chopping the vegetables still wasn't the easiest of tasks though, not like this.

"Okay, you hold it and I cut," Mustang said, since Ed had more of her palm and fingers at her disposal than he currently did.

Ed narrowed her eyes. She didn't like the idea of placing her newly regained flesh fingers in the way of his knife. But then this was Mustang. He was annoying as hell but that didn't mean she didn't trust him. So she placed her hand on the broccoli. Mustang seemed a bit surprised by her complying, but he didn't say anything and instead carefully cut the vegetable, telling her when to pull back her fingers to make more room for the knife.

She felt a bit like a curious child watching their mother cook while she stood next to him as he handled the frying pan with the chicken strips and silently pouted about that fact while breathing in the delicious smells of cooking. Her stomach grumbled again every once in a while but she didn't have to wait long until the food was ready on the table. Her being hungry ensured cooperation with Mustang's moves and even though his tummy remained silent he too worked fast to get the meal onto the plates. The kitchen table was small and so they had to cram a bit to sit at one side of it, but after an initial annoyed sigh they simply accepted it.

"At least one good thing has come from the automail," Ed said as she picked up her fork. "I'm quite adapt with my left hand." And she happily dug in.

"Fullmetall, stop you'll burn your tong-!"

"Owww hot hot hot!" Ed exhaled and inhaled sharply, trying not to spit out food as she did so. Mustang next to her laughed. "Shuddup Bashdard!"

He only grinned wider, offering a "Bon appetite" together with that infuriating smirk of his before starting to eat too, much more slowly and blowing on his food first.

Ed grumbled a swear word and finally swallowed her bite before she too ate at a slower pace. Only to realise that for a really simple dish this tasted damn good. Seeing Mustang grinning around his fork before pulling it away and chewing she chose to not compliment him though. Bastard seemed to know it anyway and she would not give him the satisfaction of letting him know verbally. Not too blatantly at least, because there still was that nagging question: "How the hell do you know how to cook?! You're a pyromaniac who eats at the military mess hall or at fancy restaurants with dates, you shouldn't be able to cook!"

"I'm an alchemist. Alchemy is a lot like cooking. You have ingredients and when you put them together the right way you get something from it. The similar way of thinking helps greatly when cooking."

Ed stared. Sometimes she forgot that behind that flame throwing one trick pony there was a scientist not unlike herself. "Right. I forgot, seeing as you never do much but fry stuff."

"I prefer to keep my talents to myself and have people underestimate me," was the simple answer.

"Of course you do. Manipulative jerk," she added under her breath.

"There's nothing manipulating about keeping one's cards close to one's chest."

Damn him for hearing it anyway. With a "Mpf," Ed decided to let him win this one in favour of eating. No matter which smug bastard made it, it would be a shame to let the food go cold.

Hoping it would maybe help get rid of the glue they did the dishes fast and without complaining, only one plate falling and breaking. Mustang proved he could indeed do more than ignite things and fixed the porcelain with a simple circle, but their glue problem still wasn't solved. It seemed the substance that kept their hands together wasn't impressed by dishwater and kept on connecting them.

"You got anything interesting to read?" Ed asked when they were done and didn't really know what to do now.

"Sure," Mustang answered and she let herself be dragged into the living room and over to the bookcases lining the walls. "There, find yourself something." They stopped before the neatly stacked tomes.

Edeline browsed through the shelves, this time pulling him along, until she found something that looked interesting. "Couch?" she asked, taking the tome about ancient Xerxes, that she did not expect Mustang to have, from the shelve. Not particularly wanting to listen to any smug answers she didn't ask where he even dug that thing up.

"One moment..." He went over to the briefcase he'd brought over from the office and fished out a manilla folder. "Okay, couch."

So they sat down, reading through their material. It was surprising how fast they got used to flipping over a page with the hand attached to the other. They just automatically moved along and then dropped their hands back down between them when the page was turned. But Ed refused to think about that too hard. In a silent agreement they spent the rest of the evening reading. Or at least Ed tried to. Her belly was full and she was tired, so slowly her eyelids started to droop. The fact that the couch was comfortable and Mustang by her side was a warm, confident presence, didn't help her stay awake much. Letters and words slowly blurred before her eyes and thoughts ran in weird ways for a bit, then she was out like a light.

Only for a second though because the moment her head dropped onto Mustang's shoulder he flinched in surprise and instinctively pulled away.

"I think this is a sign that we should go to bed," he said dryly, looking down at Ed, who'd ended up halfway on his lap, with a rather unimpressed face.

She shot back up, anger and embarrassment reddening her face. "Well sorry that I can't take a nap on my paperwork every day but have to do field work that tires you out much more!" she snapped, defensive because that was the only way she knew how to deal with this.

"I don't take naps on my work!" he growled. "Besides, did I imply you being tired was a bad thing? No, I just stated a fact. But _of course_ you have to act like a little kid!"

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO SMALL SHE STILL HAS BED TIME AT SEVEN?!"

Mustang just smirked at her flailing, even going so far as to let his arm go limp so she could keep swinging hers in what must be a nice show for him. With a growl of her own she calmed down, once again inwardly cursing the fact that she couldn't cross her arms in front of her chest.

"Anyway, let's go." He finally said and put his reading material on the coffee table before making to stand.

Ed followed his example and soon enough they were marching towards the bedroom. She dumped her suitcase in the corner and fished out her toothbrush. "Bathroom?"

"Over the-" He stopped and suddenly looked a lot like he did when Hawkeye dumped another load of papers on his desk. "Oh, _right._ " And he just started walking, Ed tagging after him not exactly voluntarily.

Brushing their teeth went relatively well. They just stood next to each other, grumpily glaring into the mirror, but otherwise not in each other's way. But then they were done and now came the problems.

"Well, I guess I can go without a shower for one day," Mustang finally said, stubbornly staring at his reflection.

"Me too. But I need to pee." Ed stated more bluntly than she felt. She didn't want to do this. She felt her face going red for the hundredth time that day and kept staring at her reflection the same way Mustang did. They'd probably never be able to look at each other again once this whole glue ordeal was over but Ed was fine with that and Mustang seemingly too. She just wished that for once the bastard would go red in the face too. Damn him for having more control over that than her.

There was a moment of silence, then, to her satisfaction, she heard Mustang swallow once. "Okay. Me too."

Ed felt like dying as they advanced at the toilet. Mustang kept his face carefully blank, then turned around without another word. Well, that probably meant it was her turn first. In this moment she really wished she was a man. Would be much easier then. But as it was, she awkwardly shoved down her pants with one hand, inwardly cursing the tight leather. Finally, she managed and sat down. For a moment nothing happened but finally she could convince her body to just answer natures call and be done with it. And it felt incredible _loud_ in her ears. While flushing she wondered if her head would soon explode from all the blood shooting up there to underline her embarrassment with a bright red face. She decided that, no, she probably wouldn't get that coup de grâce and had to live on. Finally she had her pants back up and uttered a quiet "Your turn."

So they switched position, now Ed the one who awkwardly faced the wall. She heard the sound of a zipper, then the sound of peeing and her ears seemed to burn. Unbidden pictures of the view she might have if she turned around came to her mind and she desperately recited all the elements on the periodic table to herself to make them go away.

Finally Mustang said "Okay, let's wash hands" and she rushed over to the sink. They cleaned up and without talking or looking at the other walked back to the bedroom.

Only to face the next problem. Clothes.

They were able to get their jackets off one arm but not the other. Staring at the cloth that had slid down to cover their hands and dangled down from that point, they sighed in union.

"Alchemize them off?" Ed asked.

"Alchemize them off," said Mustang and did so. Grabbing a piece of paper he penned down an array and pressed it to the cloth, transmuting it apart. And then started to unbutton his shirt.

"Uhh...?" Ed made, sounding very intelligent.

"I won't sleep in a shirt, these buttons can become damn uncomfortable," Mustang explained, glaring at her as if to dare her to try and stop him.

"Fine." And she pulled her black jacket off as far as she could before awkwardly reaching around and under her top for the clasp of her bra. "These can get quite uncomfortable too during sleeping," she said when Mustang stared at her with probably the exact same facial expression she just gave him.

"Fair enough. Need some help?" he asked with one of his smug smirks, immediately catching himself and transmuting his shirt and her black jacket off their arms.

"No." Ed was able to hold that no for one minute and fourteen seconds, then she had to give in. "Fine, I could need some help!" Stupid bra. Of course, ever the lucky person, she had to wear the one with the jamming clip today of all days. Mustang reached out and under her shirt and even though he fumbled for a second he managed to get the thing open, seemingly easily. "Damn womanizer," she muttered under her breath. To her surprise he didn't comment on that but just looked at the black bra she pulled out from under her top. "What?!"

"Just turned out I was right," he shrugged.

"Huh? In what aspect?"

"Sports bra, no fancy lace." He nodded at the part of her underwear she was currently pulling out from under her top for emphasizes.

"You thought about what kind of underwear I wear?!" she asked in disbelief.

"Not until you started to take it off."

Ed couldn't tell if that was a lie or not so she just narrowed her eyes at him and barked a "Just transmute it off!" She huffed as he grinned once more before getting rid of the bra now dangling at her wrist. At last they changed into sleep pants, which was one hilarious struggle of remaining standing up on one leg while using only one arm to dress and having to balance the other's tugging at the connected hands as they tried to not fall over. They agreed tacitly on not looking at the other during that whole ordeal.

Ed stared at Mustang's bed with a frown while she waited for him to pull the drawstrings of his loose pants tight enough to hold them up. The bed was made but...

"Those sheets aren't fresh," she observed.

"I put them on two days ago, do you really want to make a fuss now and change sheets I slept in twice before?!" Mustang sounded annoyed.

"It's not that. I just thought... weren't you supposed to have a date today?"

"Yes, what about it?"

"Don't guys usually try to make a good impression with fresh sheets when they bring women home?" Come to think of it, while Mustang's place wasn't dirty it wasn't as tidy as it could be.

The Colonel just stared at her for a moment, then sighed in annoyance. "Fullmetal, my date was an informant. They mostly are. And when I date for personal reasons we go to her place. I can offer neither the time nor the dedication a true relationship deserves, so I don't take bring women home."

Ed blinked, surprised. "So I'm the first woman to sleep in your bed?" She couldn't help but ask, just for curiosity's sake.

"If you'd finally get your ass in there and shut up so we actually could sleep, then yes you'd be just that." Rolling his eyes Mustang made his way over to said bed.

"Huh." Still quite surprised Ed followed him without resistance before they both awkwardly climbed in, lying on their backs with their joined hands between them.

Mustang switched the bedside light off and Ed closed her eyes. It was strange to lie there, touching someone, hearing someone breathe. Strange, but not so bad. Her eyes started to drop again, reminding her of why they already went to bed. She was tired, oh so tired. She heard a quiet "Good night, Fullmetal." and mumbled a "G'night Mustang" for an answer, then she fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3 The Perks of Company

**Relatively punctual this one. I hope I can keep that up but there's an exam rolling in so I can't promise...**

 **By the way, this whole thing is post manga/Brotherhood, in case you wonder about Ed having her arm and no alchemy.**

 **Have fun :3**

 **Chapter 3**

 **The Perks of Company**

It was reaching out for her, the red eyed thing they had transmuted was reaching out for her! But she couldn't let it get her, she had to go get Al back! So she kicked out her one leg and tried to crawl, but to no avail. It was coming closer, malformed organs and peeling skin. Torn muscles moved broken bones in an impossible way and Ed wanted to scream but couldn't, her voice trapped in her throat by panic. She tried to get away faster.

"Fullmed'l stap kickin', ya're hittin' me!" a sleep addled voice complained somewhere behind her.

"But-" She tried to understand how that was fitting into the situation while simultaneously trying to tell that person they had to get away. But she was interrupted anyway.

A warm arm pulled her in towards an equally warm body. "Shaddup, you're safe. I'll watch out for ya."

She contemplated that for a moment, then snuggled closer to the warmth, the basement and the result of human transmutation vanishing somewhere in comfortable nothingness. "'Kay." And she slept on.

Edeline woke, feeling more rested than ever despite being very sure she had a nightmare sometime during the night. She stifled a groan, hoping she hadn't woken Mustang with that. She hated being vulnerable.

Contemplating why she felt so relaxed despite having gone through a nightmare, she decided she would find out if Mustang knew she had one when the lazy bastard finally woke up, because right now he was still peacefully sleeping, snoring into her ear ever so slightly and... Wait.

Frozen in surprise, Ed finally realized something that threw her completely out of the loop: She and Mustang were cuddling. Her. And Mustang. Fucking _cuddling_. She blinked, still unable to understand how it had come to that.

A shrill ringing suddenly brought her out of her shock induced stupor, making her jump while Mustang just growled in annoyance and attempted to bury his head in his pillow, pulling her closer as he did so. The alarm clock Ed finally spotted on the night stand didn't stop its ringing though, so the Colonel finally muttered a muffled curse into the pillow and propped himself up on his elbow, reaching out for it. Only to stop in sleepy incomprehension when Ed's hand was dangling from his, still connected by the vicious glue. He just stared at the source of their current predicament for a moment, then his eyes widened and he scrambled back, miscalculating the distance to the bed's edge and promptly falling off the mattress. Ed couldn't even think about laughing at him because she was pulled along, tumbling down on top of him. The worst thing was she couldn't even blame her fall on their glued together hands because, to her horror, she realised that her free arm had been wrapped around Mustang's torso, much like his free arm had been around her. Seems like he had not been the only one to actively cuddle.

There was a discontent "ugh" sound from underneath her and Ed quickly rolled off Mustang's prone form, feeling a mixture of anger and embarrassment. The colonel simply remained lying where he was, bringing his free hand up to rather gracelessly drag it down his face. "What a wonderful morning," he said, sarcasm lacing his voice.

"You could say that again." Ed considered destroying the still ringing alarm clock for good. "Why were we cuddling?" she asked herself as she studied the annoying device.

"I think I was trying to stop you from kicking my shins to pieces and that somehow got out of control. What's your excuse?" Mustang next to her said dryly before grabbing a pillow that had fallen with them. While he deftly chucked it at the alarm clock, finally silencing it, Ed cursed herself for thinking aloud. That question had not meant to be audible.

"I was sleeping, I didn't know it was you," she finally said.

"Who should have been there, do you have a boyfriend?" Mustang seemed equally curious and gleeful in a way that told her a session of teasing was right ahead.

Ed spluttered, wanting to answer something sly but unable to come up with such a response. At last she admitted "I don't have a boyfriend," but didn't explain herself any further. Mustang just made a sound she couldn't clearly identify but believed was just a non-committal acknowledgement of her answer, then went back to examining the problem quite literally at hand. Suspicious about how easy it was to get him away from a topic he could use to embarrass her, but unwilling to give him a reason to continue on said topic after all, Ed joined him in staring at their hands. The appendages were still connected and after carefully pulling at them they acknowledged that and sighed in union.

"I think I'll call in sick." Mustang finally stated.

"You think Hawkeye will let you get away with it?"

"I hope so..."

And that's how they finally got up and made their way towards the phone. Ed leaned against the wall, trying not to yawn too loudly, while Mustang called up the military to inform whoever he had to that he wouldn't come in today. Ed really didn't know, she was in the habit of just calling in at Mustang's office and leaving him and his team to clear formalities. Finally he hung up and Ed didn't bother yawning quietly any more.

"What now?" she asked. Usually when interrupted this early in the morning she would just go back to sleep. But that would bring back the memories of her having cuddled with Mustang of all people and she was not quite ready to face the mystery of why her subconsciousness had decided this was a good idea, yet.

Mustang didn't seem to have any idea either. To her surprise he simply shrugged. "I don't know."

And for what felt like the millionth time during their predicament they stood around awkwardly and in silence, not knowing what to do.

They woke from their stupor again roughly what felt like one hour later, the phone ringing insistently until Mustang picked it up and explained to a not so happy Hawkeye that he was still stuck with Ed and there was no way he'd make it through a whole work day without anyone discovering their embarrassing predicament, which he deemed not acceptable seeing as he had to retain a certain reputation if he wanted to become Führer. Hawkeye accepted that and reminded him they could still go see a paediatrician, which led to Mustang throwing the phone down in a way that used to be reserved for Hughes only. Ed was stunned, not knowing the ever collected Mustang would resort to taking out his frustration on the poor earpiece. But then she shrugged, a more important thing taking up the first spot in her mind. "I'm hungry, when's breakfast?"

"Now, I guess," Mustang answered, walking them to the kitchen in a somewhat sour mood. A mood that didn't get any better when he rummaged through the cupboards, not finding much inside. "We might have a problem," he admitted, "I was planning on having breakfast in the mess hall and to go grocery shopping after work. So basically what we ate yesterday was the last food in the house."

"You can't be serious! You don't want to deal with me going without food for a whole day!" Ed stared at him, wide eyed.

"We'll just have to go shopping then," Mustang said with a shrug.

"You just called in sick," Ed stated.

"Even a sick man needs to eat, they can't make trouble when I go grocery shopping." Another shrug.

"But it'll look like you just took the day off to gallivant around town with me!" Ed shook their connected hands for emphasis.

"You could have come over to nurse me." For once his smirk didn't survive long under her flat stare. "Okay, that is really highly unlikely." And suddenly the smirk was back. "But what if no one knows it's us walking around?"

Ed narrowed her eyes. "You can't be serious."

"Well, it's either a little under cover mission or no food," he said and seemed quite amused. It was almost creepy how yesterday he'd been all pissed off, yet today he seemed to slowly develop a downright gleeful mood at the prospect of solving their problems in an unusual way.

"You must have a personality disorder, Mustang," Ed mumbled but followed him towards the bathroom.

It took a while because without being able to do clap alchemy they had to figure out how to place the array best, which isn't that easy when the main ingredients are water and hair, But in the end the bathroom was occupied by a black haired Edeline Elric and one red headed Roy Mustang.

"If someone figures out this is me, I will die. This looks horrible!" the Colonel groaned.

"We could change it to blond..." Ed was shortly before laughing.

"That will look just as stupid, my features were made for dark hair," Mustang claimed.

Ed studied him for a moment, deciding that the black bangs hanging into his eyes really did look much better. She wouldn't admit that out loud though, the bastard had a big enough ego as it was.

"Stop complaining, no one will guess it's you because no one is going to believe you would actually move your vain ass out of the door with such a horrible hair style." She rolled her eyes and thought about how she might manage to braid her hair again.

"I'm not vain, I simply prefer to be well groomed," the Flame defended himself.

"Whatever, help me braid my hair." She gave up on doing that on her own with only one hand at her full disposal.

"Leave it, the braid is too trademark and it looks much better when it's down anyway."

Edward stared at him as he experimented with combing his red hair back to make it look somewhat better, seemingly unaware of what his comment implied. She played with the strands framing her face. "It looks stupid when down, like I'm some little girl playing princess."

"I think it looks more mature than that braid," Mustang insisted.

It was weird that there suddenly wasn't any mocking involved any more. She glanced at him as he finally gave up on his attempts at saving his looks, not sure how to feel about this behaviour of his. Then, she shrugged. In the end the braid was the hairstyle that didn't get into her way while fighting so she'd probably keep it. Mustang's opinion didn't really matter, right?

Finally they went back into the bedroom, only to face the opposite of yesterday's problem: How should they get into their clothes? Ed decided to take on the easier part first. Pants.

"Don't you dare look!" she hissed in her most threatening tone when she pulled fresh panties out of her suit case.

"I was raised to be a Gentleman." Mustang turned around in an ever so slightly exaggerated way.

Ed huffed, then changed her underwear and her pants while she was at it. At last she turned around to allow Mustang his privacy in return, keeping her eyes stubbornly closed, trying to ignore the soft sound of fabric rustling as it slid over Mustang's skin.

She really needed a boyfriend, she decided. This was affecting her far too much. Not that it made her completely horny, but she still had the urge to turn around and explore that body she only knew shrouded in an ugly uniform. Mustang had been topless ever since yesterday evening and even though she had refused to stare she had seen there were some scars on him and wanted to know where each of them came from and if there were more where she couldn't see them. And it wasn't for simple curiosity or to scorn him either, no, she genuinely wanted to know about his past, wanted to know how he became who he is. She suddenly realized she considered the bastard a friend, yet he knew much more about her than she ever did about him. The burn scar on his side came from defeating Lust, but what had caused the star shaped one where his left arm connected to his chest, towards the outer end of his collar bone? Or the long one across his shoulder blade? She couldn't help but turn ever so slightly and peak at him while Mustang finished buttoning his pants.

"And here you were accusing _me_ of being a peeping tom!"

She flinched, caught by surprise. She was so damn sure he hadn't been looking she had stuttered out a "How did you-" long before she decided that denying having looked would have been the better choice.

Mustang turned, smirking. "I didn't know, I just thought I'd try and see what happens."

Colour slammed into Ed's cheeks. She raised a semi accusing finger. "I wasn't looking at anything important, I was just trying to figure out what that scar on your back is about!" She blurted in means of a defence.

"Why not simply ask?" he wanted to know.

"Didn't want to pry..." was the muttered reply.

Mustang looked like he was considering his answer for a moment, then shrugged. "During my days at the Military Academy me and Hughes had a little war going on with some seniors who wouldn't stop picking on a friend we made. One day one of their pranks ended with me falling down an obstacle on the training course, hitting a piece of the structure unluckily enough for it to cut me across the shoulder blade on the way down. A rather graceless way to get a scar, but it reminds me that at least once I definitely fought on the right side."

"Such assholes are allowed into the academy? Did they get punished?"

"One got blamed and kicked out. The other two are lower ranked than me by now. Them having to salute me ultimately is a much better punishment than anything the military could have dealt out." Mustang seemed quite content with that.

"Where's that friend of yours now?" Ed couldn't help but be curious. Mustang had remained in close contact with Hughes, so why not with that other friend from the old days? At least it seemed to her like he hadn't, but maybe she just once gain didn't know enough about the colonel.

"He's dead." Mustang said it with a blank tone that allowed no interpretation about his feelings.

Edeline swallowed, not quite sure if she was allowed to prod that far. "Ishbal?"

A self loathing smile marred Mustang's face. "Yes, but not like you think. He had Ishvalan blood. He came to the military to change their view on his people from the inside. But the war came anyway. We met again on the battlefield, on different sides after all. He shot me and Hughes shot him."

"But you're still..."

"I was lucky. State Alchemist pocket watches are solid enough to catch a bullet."

They stood in silence for a while, Ed looking at Mustang who looked at something above her head. It seemed like he was staring into nothingness but she knew it were memories that he saw. Ed felt Mustang's hand connected to hers more than ever. She suppressed the urge to squeeze it and instead finally broke the quiet. There was no good in dwelling on old memories. Get up and move forward was all they could do.

"We should get dressed," she finally said.

Mustang slowly nodded, returning to the presence. "Do you have any idea how we do that best?"

Ed shrugged. "Transmute the cloth somehow?"

And transmute they did. Because that is what alchemists do best when they don't want to think about the past but focus on today and the future.


End file.
